Successful Optometrist Shares Social Media Secrets – Working 24/7

We are just kidding about the 24/7 part but before interviewing Nathan Bonilla-Warford, O.D., F.A.A.O. ofBright Eyes Family Vision Care of Tampa, we felt that because he so active and visible that he must be doing optical social media marketing 24/7.

Dr. Bonilla-Warford says about this comment that people do wonder how he can spend so much time on social media. But he says “For me it is easy because it is my hobby and I don’t watch TV or follow sports. It is amazing how much TV people watch, but with social media I have the end result of marketing my practice AND developing personal and professional relationships.”

We asked: What social media mediums are you using and why?The social media networks that I use are a mix of what appeals to me personally, what my patients are using, and anything that is new that I feel like I should try out. These are the ones I use in order of preference:

Optical Baby Day Tweetup

Twitter is my favorite.I like it because it is quick and simple, and many of my local friends and organizations use it. It is a great way to keep up on news and current events, both nationally and locally. I consider reading Twitter like skimming the newspaper headlines: If something is interesting, I’ll read it in detail. If I don’t read it, I’m not worried about “catching up” with old news. I have gotten many patients from Twitter, especially after holding a “tweetup”in the office to get to know many of the people on Twitter that I had not met in real life.

(Note: see definition below if you are not familiar with what a “tweetup” is)

I like Foursquare because it is fun to check in to new places that I haven’t been to before, as well as get badges. I’m currently in a “mayor war” at the local YMCA to see who has worked out the most. It is very motivating.

I use Yelp, because I like to read and write local reviews and communicate with people locally. The Yelp scene in Tampa is still very small, but growing. I haven’t gotten any business from it (yet).

I use Facebook because my friends, family and patients use it. But I don’t like it as much, because I feel like it is very busy and redundant. I have had to learn to hide and block many applications and people to be able to use it efficiently.
A few others: I also use the Optcom.com email listserve daily, which I consider a social media network. This is a great way to find out about news and see how other people feel about given issues. I have a LinkedIn account, but I feel it is much better suited to business networking, so I don’t really take advantage of it. The new AOAConnect for American Optometric Association has potential but hasn’t taken off yet.

More to follow next week as this successful optometrist shares his social media secrets including Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford’s answers to the following questions:

How is FourSquare working out for you?

What platform do you consider the best ROI and how should a business leverage the platform to produce the optimum ROI?

How much time do you take Social mediazing and how involved are your office staff?

Definition of a “tweetup” from PC Magazine: A gathering of users brought together via Twitter. For example, at conferences, Twitter is used by attendees to arrange to meet after the show for discussion, cocktails and parties. Also called a “Twestival” (Twitter festival). Here is a link to help you organize a tweetup http://twtvite.com/new.php.